(TerrainialVR) Carolina Marquez and Jayson Chesler, founders of the VR production company Terrainial, have been accepted into Google’s Jump Start VR filmmaking program that connects filmmakers with Google’s advanced Jump VR equipment and technology. The filmmakers will focus on using virtual reality technology to bring viewers to the U.S./Mexico border by walking in the shoes of the people who live and work alongside the border. “Our goal is allow people to explore different and sometimes conflicting perspectives of our border with Mexico. This experience will personalize the complex issues around our border that are often broken down into catchy soundbites,” said Marquez. “We want to capture the complex struggle that happens everyday for the people who live, work and migrate through here.”
Marquez and Chesler are also teaching VR for Journalists this upcoming fall semester at ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication where the two graduated from in 2016. It was during their time at ASU that they founded Terrainial—which has gone on to receive multiple grants and awards.